I don’t know if it’s happening in other parts of the country, but it sure is happening here.

It started on the East Coast of South Florida a few years back. Now, last week, it has happened in Ocala and now Bushnell which is three towns away. The horses don’t have to be in a pasture up by the road. They will go through the woods, cut the fence, and cut them up right behind your property, and it’s over.

The beautiful, loving creatures that God has placed in our care, are being taken from pastures, and butchered, yes slaughtered a short distance from our homes, and the pieces are left to be found.

Years ago, when I lived in Staten Island, a whole herd was taken from a pasture up the road from me. The owners did not live on the property, and during the night a trailer pulled up and loaded the horses, probably at that time, taking them across the boarder to Canada or Mexico. Now they are not taking them anywhere other than a few hundred feet from their homes and cutting them up.

Back then I removed my horses halters. To this day I still don’t keep halters on unless it’s going to storm and I want to grab them quickly, but will removing halters stop these sicko’s?

It doesn’t matter if they are chipped. Nothing matters. What do you do to keep them safe? Hot wire doesn’t stop these vicious people. Fences don’t stop them. Maybe some really bad dogs, but they can poison them. You can probably put up security cameras, but can you do it around large acreage?

I don’t have the answer to this one. We can try our best to keep them someplace close to the house at night. We can have watch dogs that will alert us to strangers entering our property. What we can’t do is sit there every night, all night with a shot gun.

Really, all we can do is pray. Even if these wackos get caught, the next group will be just around the corner.